Happy Birthday Annabelle!

Our baby is turning 1 today! We are happy and sad all at the same time. What a wonderful year we have had. She is no longer our "little" baby. She wants to do more on her own and explore the world around her.

Born at 8lbs. and 1 oz. she has grown to be a big 17lbs 2 oz.





Sleeping peacefully at just a couple of hours old.


Already her and Uncle Hunter are having fun.


The only place she slept for the first week, on daddy's chest. ;)


Now at 2 months she is enjoying her baths.


Almost 4 months old.


Grumpy already?


At 5 months she is starting to crawl = /


The love affair with the pillow begins.


Already helping mommy with the laundry.


Can I eat this?


Can I eat this too?


Clapping for momma.


Now this I can eat!


Playing with my toys.


I can't get this off....


Oh, well!


Happy Birthday Annabelle! We Love You!

Going Organic

When we decided to "go organic" we also wanted our water to be as pure as possible. Since pesticides and other harmful substances can get into the water it was important to us to get a good water filter. I am glad we did since there is all this talk of drugs found in public water this past week.

We decided to go with the Berkey Light Water Filter. We have now had this about a month and I must say I LOVE IT! It works great. It holds about 2 gallons which last us a day. I fill it up every night before we go to bed and in the morning we have 2 gallons or fresh water.

There are other filters out there that are less expensive, and we have used some of them. But this is by far one of the nest purchases we have made.

Back on Track!

We had the pleasure of having my husbands family down for a couple of days. We all had a great time, but it is nice to finally be back on a routine. We all celebrated Annabelle's birthday on Friday. Instead of the traditional cake we had angel food cake with strawberries and blueberries with cool whip. Of course she just ate the blueberries and left the rest ;)
My husband was so happy to finally be able to see his brothers. It has been almost 1 1/2 yrs since he saw one of his brothers since he has been deployed for a while. The same brother also surprised us with news that he had gotten married. We are so thrilled for him and his new wife, Kathryn. We pray that they have a long and happy marriage...with lots of babies of course...hey our children need some cousins. ;)

Saving more on fruit and veggies!

With spring almost here and summer on the way this is a good time to start finding all of your local farms. http://www.localharvest.org/ is a great place to start. Pick your own farms are great, you can pick your own fruits and veggies for a fraction of the cost of what you could buy them in the store. Last year we went to a blueberry farm and picked 10lbs. of blueberries and bought an additional 15 lbs. that were already picked and frozen....all for about $40! If you compare this to the price of blueberries in the store you will notice what a great deal this was.

We have since moved, but have found another blueberry farm close by. We have also found other farms where we can pick our own. If you don't have a pick-your-own farm near you, then search for "regular" farms. Call them up and see if they will sell you bulk produce, most will and for just pennies! Its great for freezing or canning.

Going Organic

We were picking up a few items at Walmart yesterday and realized that organic milk was actually .44 cheaper than the "regular" kind. This was in half gallons though. We were both amazed! But milk here is $5.44 a gallon and for half a gallon 3.44. They only carry organic milk in half gallons and it was priced $3.00. Of course, that started a discussion. So, why is milk so expensive and how can organic be cheaper? Grain prices have gone through the roof, especially corn! Organic cows are generally fed hay and free graze, since most corn is GMO which isn't considered organic. We are guessing that it is now cheaper to feed hay, than corn. It used to be the other way around.
How much is milk where you are?

Back again...

We have had a wild past couple of days. DH had Mon. and Tues. off so we took advantage and did lots of cleaning. DH rented a steam cleaner and cleaned the carpet throughout the whole house. ;) It looks so good now! Plus he cleaned the carpets in the van and the seats.
Monday we dropped off little Annabelle with a friend of ours so she could play with her little friends and we went shopping...to buy some birthday presents for her....and he took me to a really nice steak house, we had a delicious lunch, with some Starbucks afterwards.
It was nice to sit down to a dinner without my screaming daughter. For some reason she doesn't like to sit for an hour in her highchair.
Thanks honey, for such a great time!

The dress....

I bought this dress shortly after we moved here. I loved it, but I wanted to wait until the weather was perfect to wear it. I ended up wearing it to church this morning...even though the weather isn't perfect. I am getting a little too big, and only have about two shirts that now cover my belly : / and only about one skirt that fits. Having said that, I pulled out this dress, so the people at church won't think I have only one outfit...haha...even though I do ;) This dress will be passed on to a dear friend here shortly. It wouldn't be easy to nurse in so I don't think I will be wearing it anytime within the next year or two.

By the way, I have had three people come up to me this morning telling me that they didn't know I was pregnant. Hmmmm... Wonder if they thought I was still carrying around all that "baby fat" from Annabelle...I sure hope not.